The Next Revolution in Drone Technology

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We have the first quadcopter

with vertical and horizontal flight ability!

The Dream of Flight!

Have you ever dreamed of flying an F-14? Piloting a rocket at breakneck speed? Now you can! We defied conventional wisdom to create a revolutionary family of aircraft–the QuadRKT. We have the first drone that flies in both horizontal and vertical modes with unparalleled speed and agility. You can even experience it in First Person View (FPV).

Missile Mode Flight

We proved our aircraft could take off and land vertically with ease. But we weren’t satisfied. We wanted a UAV that could hover like a helicopter and fly forward like a missile. An aircraft that could take-off and hover in a “nose-up” configuration and then pitch over into “missile-mode” would be faster and more efficient than both helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes. This is the new capability our QuadRKT platform brings the US government, private companies, and now hobbyists. The design requires no complicated mechanisms to transition between hover mode and “missile mode” flight and back again. The wings do not need to be sized for take-off and landing so they are smaller and simpler than a comparable fixed-wing airplane’s wings. That means less weight and less drag which result in longer flight times and higher top speeds.

The 13-year-old in each of us wants one of these!

Help Us Take QuadRkt To Market

The next revolution in drone technology

The original technologies associated with the XQ-139 family of aircraft were born in the University of Kansas Transportation Research Institute (KUTRI) between 2010 and 2014. The (then) institute director Dr. Robert Honea (now Edissey Chairman) funded research on aircraft that could hover more efficiently than a helicopter, while being able to fly with the efficiency of a missile. The platform was originally conceived by Dr. Ron Barrett, a world renowned expert in aeronautical engineering and professor at KU. The applications are endless for a machine that offers all the advantages of both fixed wing and quadcopter drone technology.

From this overall project directive, the XQ-139 family of aircraft was born. In 2014, 17 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) related invention disclosures were distilled into 8 patent filings supporting inventions of the XQ-139 family of aircraft. Subsequently, the Edissey company was formed to commercialize these inventions through a license with the Kansas University Center for Technology Commercialization (KUCTC).

As a competitor in DARPA’s Experimental Vertical Takeoff and Landing effort (XVTOL), the DARPA Tactical Technology Office program manager explained during the debrief: “The aircraft is too risky for DARPA and will probably never fly.” We are happy to prove DARPA wrong, dead wrong. The aircraft not only flies, it exceeded our expectation for speed, agility, and elegance. We have proven the platform can take off and land vertically with ease, then pivot and fly horizontally, which we call “missile” mode due to the speed with which it flies. The craft flies with unprecedented aerobatic capabilities, some exceeding the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) onboard controller technology. Thus, we have created three versions of the platform:

The QuadSPRWTM aircraft is the training vehicle. It is a small-framed durable bird capable of both modes of flight, but priced for the hobbyist and for training pilots for dual-mode flight. The SPRWTM is available now.

The QuadHWKTM aircraft is the production version of the aircraft that will fully demonstrate the capabilities of the design. This will include BYO kits for the hobbyist who wants to use his own controller. It will also be the platform for FPV integration. With the aerobatic capability of this version of the aircraft, we envision an entirely new craze of drone racing that will rival Hollywood’s great sci-fi movie chases. It will be the platform for release through a Kickstarter program to be opened in Q2, 2016.

The QuadEGLTM aircraft is the largest version of the platform and will target commercial applications of the remarkable platform. It will be released early in 2017. For more information or to inquire about applications for this machine, please contact us.

We have perfected the technology behind the QuadRKT family of aircraft. Now, we go to market to deliver a unique and truly game-changing aircraft to the marketplace. Join the revolution in aircraft technology!

Making all previous UAV technology obsolete

Traditionally, the ability to hover came at a cost of forward speed. The “holy grail” of aircraft is a vehicle that can hover like a helicopter and fly horizontally like a conventional airplane or missile. This is accomplished through both structural elements and design. The net effect is a dramatically reduced “wetted” surface enabling the aircraft to perform both a VTOL hover and a forward high-speed travel. Join the QuadRKTTM revolution in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technology!

Dr. Ron Barrett holds Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering. He has authored more than 200 technical publications, worked, lectured and consulted in 9 different countries, 5 Government labs and 13 aerospace companies on a variety of adaptive structures, missiles, missiles and UAV projects. He is a recipient of Discover Magazine’s Discover Award for Aerospace Technology and holds patents on many devices from drag nulling airfoils to guided bullet flight control assemblies. He has served on Aerospace Engineering faculties in Auburn, Alabama, the Technical University of Delft, Holland and The University of Kansas where he now teaches and does research on aircraft design, missiles, munitions and adaptive aerostructures. He is the father of the QuadRocket platform of aircraft.

Dr. Richard Bramlette received a B.S. from Auburn University in 2006, a M.S. from Wichita State University in 2008, both in Aerospace Engineering, and recently completed a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas with a focus on matching jet propulsion simulations to experimental measurements. That research intends to revive a lost jet propulsion technology. His primary interest is in aircraft design and rapidly prototyping remote control vehicles to study novel fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft configurations. He is remote control aircraft pilot registered in the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) with nearly a decade of experience flying commercially available remote control aircraft as well as flight testing new aircraft designs. He has been a member of or mentor to twelve student aircraft design teams since 2005 that resulted in built and flight tested aircraft. In addition, he has won multiple awards from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) for research in aircraft flight control and aircraft design. He further holds a general class amateur radio license that was used to launch and recover high altitude weather balloons reaching altitude in excess of 100,000 ft. The license was also used to downlink live video from the balloons and later from remote control aircraft years before “first person video” reached mass market.’

Dr. Eric Dobson is a proven leader, serial entrepreneur, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Angel Capital Group. I spent the last 26 years working in a variety of venues from government to private sector, the last 15 in start-up technology ventures. I was the founder of three companies, help found six, and lead investments in 24 more. I was honored to receive the Navigator Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce in 2010. In 2011, I was awarded the Pinnacle Innovator of the Year by the Innovation Valley Technology Council and Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. I hold a BA from the University of Tennessee where I was also a lecturer to the Department of Management in the School of Business. I received my MS and Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. I now apply all the hard-earned knowledge and experience from these ventures and exploits to venture-style investing. I joined Edissey because it represents a fundamental advance in the science and technology of flight.

Dr. Bob Honea, Chairman of Edissey, LLC, began his career as a principal investigator on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Department of Defense research grants. He was an IEEE/NASA Science Faculty Research Fellow at Marshall Space Flight Center where he assisted in establishing Marshall’s Earth Resources and Remote Sensing Research Program, and he was a scientist and research manager at the Department of Energy (DOE), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Dr. Honea received his BS degree in mathematics and MA degree in quantitative geography from the University of Georgia, and his Ph.D. in industrial location theory and regional modeling (geography) from the University of Florida. In 1998, Dr. Honea was named the Director of the National Transportation Research Center (NTRC) and was responsible for coordinating more than $120 million in R&D that includes work for Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Defense, the State of Tennessee, private industry and not-for-profit organizations. As NTRC Director, he led the effort to build a 85,000 square foot transportation R&D facility, with 12 research laboratories and houses more than 200 ORNL and UT research and technical staff.

In 2006, Dr. Honea accepted a position at the University of Kansas as Director of KU’s Transportation Research Institute. This program grew to over $35 million in total funding in five years.